Saturday, August 15, 2009

Cavalock and How Not To Use A Pair of Chopsticks in Japan

Not much going on right now, except me trying not to flunk my course. Hah! Saw this interesting poll at What Japan Thinks. It's about chopstick etiquette. Geez, I have to immediately say that I'm guilty of the first one. Never knew it was a no-no, I even saw more than a few Japanese men doing it.

Ranking results

Q1: Which chopstick bad manners can you just not break?

Rank日本語ExplanationScore
1渡し箸watashi bashi: Resting chopsticks sideways across the top of dishes100
2探り箸saguri bashi: Stirring soup trying to find that last chunk of tofu, etc83.1
3突き箸・刺し箸tsuki bashi, sashi bashi: Spearing food then eating it79.1
4直箸choku bashi: Not using the serving chopsticks, but your own sticks to get food from shared plates71.2
5もぎ箸mogi bashi: Sucking off grains of rice, etc, stuck to the chopsticks65.4
6重ね箸kasane bashi: Eating just one dish continuously61.9
7持ち箸mochi bashi: Grabbing a dish, glass, etc whilst holding chopsticks in the same hand61.6
8迷い箸mayoi bashi: Hovering chopsticks over the dishes while humming and hawing about what to eat54.4
9受け箸uke bashi: Holding chopsticks when asking for more rice44.8
10掻き箸kaki bashi: Holding a bowl to your mouth and shovelling food in43.0
11舐り箸neburi bashi: Licking your chopsticks27.6
12撥ね箸hane bashi: Pushing away disliked food with chopsticks23.8
13寄せ箸yose bashi: Pulling dishes closer with chopsticks23.5
14洗い箸arai bashi: Washing chopsticks in soup16.3
15指し箸sashi bashi: Pointing at people or things with chopsticks15.7
16すかし箸sukashi bashi: Rather than turning over a fish, picking away the meat from under the bones14.8
17揃え箸soroe bashi: Suddenly lunging at dishes with chopsticks ready13.1
18空箸kara bashi: Picking up food but not eating it8.7
19移り箸・渡り箸utsuri bashi, watari bashi: Aiming to pick up one dish, but then suddenly switching to another8.7
20涙箸namida bashi: Allowing tears of soup to drip from your chopsticks7.8




5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am sorry I have not been by recently.... I am trying to catch up again with friends.... it has been one of those summers...

As for the Bad manners.... "I am so there"!

red fir said...

Guilty as charged hehe.

Anonymous said...

i know only no.8.
great post cavalock chaaaan lol
niki

Cavalock said...

hi niki! how are u? thanks for dropping by! <^;^>

Richard said...

Well, I am guilty of many of them except: 7, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.

As for number 10 (shovelling food into your mouth), Chinese friends told me this was the aceptable way to get rice in your mouth (although, they thought it odd when I did it with a plate).

Don't get the ranking / score though.